By Michelle Kroes
Daily Bruin Contributor
Labeled America’s “model minority,” many Asian
Americans struggle with an unfair stereotype.
According to history Professor Henry Yu, the population of Asian
Americans is so diverse that no generalization can be made.
“Even though some segments of the population have high
incomes, the percentage of Asian Americans who are below the
poverty line is significant and higher than the percentage for the
general population as a whole,” he said.
Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show discrepancies in the
education levels among Asian American groups as well. While more
than 57 percent of Indian Americans have received a
bachelor’s degree or higher, only 5 percent of Hmongs
completed college. Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians all rank
below the national level in education.
Success is not universal across Asian American groups. In the
experience of Lyeng La, a second-generation Cambodian and
fourth-year Asian American studies student, the model minority myth
is harmful.
“Many of our parents came to America around the time of
the Vietnam War, making us only second- and third-generation
immigrants. We have not had as much time as other Asian groups to
assimilate to this country, learn the language as well and other
skills,” she said. “Many of the students couldn’t
meet up to the expectations on them for being Asian when they went
to school and ultimately had to drop out.”
Also associated with the myth of the hard-working, economically
successful, academically over-achieving Asian American is that they
never complain, are self-reliant, have strong family values, and
have a close-knit, interdependent community, according to Model
Minority, an online publication seeking to empower Asian
Americans.
Furthermore, Asian Americans are often believed to be only
interested in and committed to a select few subjects, such as math
and the sciences.
“When I first went to school, people asked me a lot if I
was going to study biology or something like that,” La said.
“People just assume things before they even get to know
you.”
The model minority image, according to historians, has been
based on a few successful Asian American groups but applied to the
minority as a whole.
Asian American problems are often ignored because no one knows
they truly exist ““ not only on the societal level, but on the
federal level as well, as Asians lose out on minority programs,
said Anthropology Professor Kyeyoung Park.
“The myth denies the needs and demands of the community.
It claims that Asian Americans can deal with it themselves,”
she said “Model minorities don’t need intervention from
society.”
The myth keeps the glass ceiling for many Asian Americans in the
professional world intact.
“I don’t see many Asians in positions of
leadership,” said Calvin Tchiang, a second-year undeclared
student. “People speak of the success of Asian Americans but
I see them working more at the grunt level than high managerial
positions.”
According to Park, the model minority myth was constructed most
actively in the ’60s as a means to quiet discontented
minorities.
“Asian Americans were used as “˜role models’
for other minorities to follow,” she said. “They were
told to stop complaining about racism because Asians showed that
the system can work for you.”
This ultimately placed a wedge between Asians and other
minorities. This abuse of the myth is evident to this day, said
Professor Glenn Omatsu.
“With the attacks on affirmative action in the UC system,
it is not surprising that several politicians have promoted the
model minority stereotype as a way to deflect attention away from
the growing educational crisis and intensification of
racism,” he said.
The media is also seen as a contributor to the model minority
myth. Since “Success Story: Japanese American Style”
was published in the January 1966 edition of New York Times
Magazine, numerous publications have lauded the achievements of
Asian Americans and their assimilation into the dominant culture,
according to the Model Minority Web site.
“Since the model minority aspect is so easily used
politically and personally as a way of denigrating other minorities
… It also feeds into incredibly racist pseudo-sciences such as
that displayed by the “˜Bell Curve,’ which proved Asian
Americans to be smarter than whites and whites smarter than
blacks,” Yu said.
Many people could distort the fact that at UCLA, UC Berkeley and
at UC Irvine, nearly half the students are Asian American. But this
has less to do with something inherent in Asian Americans than
factors of immigration, Yu said.
When matters like this are taken into consideration,
“We’re much less likely to indulge in racial
generalizations that collapse all Asian Americans, no matter what
their income or educational status, into some meaningless category
of “˜model minority,'” he said.
ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER EDUCATION PROFILE
Education levels help perpetuate the "model minority"
stereotype
- One of every two Asian and Pacific Islander adults ages 25 to
29 had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 1997, contributing
to that population’s high percentage of college graduates. - Almost 1 in 3 whites (29 percent), 1 in 7 African Americans (14
percent), and just over 1 in 10 Latinos (11 percent) in the 25- to
29-year-old age group had at least a bachelor’s degree. - Among all persons ages 25 and over in 1997, Asians and Pacific
Islanders had the greatest proportion of college graduates of any
racial or ethnic group, at 42 percent. This is compared with 25
percent for whites, 13 percent for African Americans and 10 percent
for Latinos.
SOURCE: Census Bureau Original graphic by VICTOR CHEN/Daily
Bruin Web adaptation by BEN TSENG